Revenue worries

WHITE SALMON — Mayor Marla Keethler plainly laid out the city’s future financial standing during a budget workshop on Oct. 21, right before council’s regular meeting.

“Council in the upcoming years should be confronting a budget that does not sustain itself long-term based on the existing revenue sources that come in and the rising costs we see year over year,” Keethler said. “In 2028, the city is going to have a lot of changeover in these positions, so we ideally would already be charting some of that course.”

Councilor Patty Fink pushed for more realistic expectation setting, where council would strictly prioritize and budget for only a handful of projects every year. Councilor Morella Mora sought some way to synchronize the city’s revenue dilemma with affordability pressures she consistently hears from residents — “everything’s too expensive and there’s nowhere to live.” Keethler highlighted stronger tenant protections as one potential opportunity.

The city’s general fund is projected to accumulate $3.87 million worth of revenue in 2027, a 1.4% increase compared to the estimated year-end total in 2026, according preliminary numbers from Jennifer Neil, director of finance and operations. Planned expenditures are below that threshold, but similar to the street fund, small positive margins don’t equate to structural sustainability.

Take the infrastructure damage on NE Skagit Avenue and NE Scenic Street, for example. Caused by a storm in May, as previously reported by Columbia Gorge News, the city obtained a $1 million grant to bankroll about half of the repair cost, but Keethler reported last Wednesday that insurance may not cover the remainder.

If that’s the case, the city will need to tap its reserves or other available sources. Without capital outlay accounted for, the street fund is only expected to have about $94,000 in extra cash next year, compared to roughly $125,000 in the general fund. Both must be able to absorb forecast error and potential cost increases.

“Our existing service baseline is already consuming most of our projected, recurring revenue,” Neil said. “It does not include new council priorities, new projects that haven’t already been ongoing.”

She then laid out several options to generate more revenue, which council will continue to deliberate on: expanding the city’s boundaries, pursuing a public safety sales tax, updating a variety of fees, establishing paid parking and more.

“Revenue sustainability requires more than one lever,” Mora said.

Among other notable items, council approved a resolution recognizing Bingen-White Salmon Police Officer Frank Randall, who’s set to resign at the end of this month. Randall joined the department in April 2017 after spending over two decades at the Klickitat County Sheriff’s Office, and Chief Mike Heppner noted he’s transitioning to the county’s Department of Emergency Management.

Keethler also gauged council’s interest in more actively engaging with the current county-level discussion on data centers, and Fink relayed that White Salmon’s CityLAB Board was already on the case. A resolution may be presented at a future council meeting.

“I think that there’s been a lot of public support and desire from the community to see more action [from] the county in terms of how they could, through a moratorium or other actions, give space to get some code in place,” Keethler said.

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